Low-lying large vessels for the storage of material, in particular low-lying silos or bunkers, as are typical of the cargo holds of ships, require a special plant for unloading. Provided for this purpose at the bottom of the cargo hold are devices which take the material away from there and convey it to a feed chamber for a central lifting device. The latter conveys the bulk material delivered from the bunkers to a higher level, which in ships corresponds approximately to the deck level or the top edge of the bunker or silo.
It is known to use fluidizing bottoms for conveying the material from the bottom of the bunkers to the central point and to lift the material at the central point via a vertically arranged conveying worm to the deck level, from where it can be transported away via a pneumatic conveying device (DE 12 62 899 B). A disadvantage of this known plant is that it has only a low throughput, thereby resulting in long unloading times. In particular in the case of ships, this leads to considerable costs on account of the anchorage dues.